The counties administer Chapter 7080, the septic code. However, there is no oversight. The professionals fear retribution should they turn their county in for obvious and blatant violations. The result is that the counties do as they want. They decide what they "feel" like enforcing. They rarely do enforcement because of the paperwork. They do not file the proper paperwork when they are on the site or worse they
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The PCA charges the counties with administration of Chapter 7080, they also give the counties $10,000 to that end. However, there are hundreds of municipalities and townships with their own programs, governed by the same rules and never receive one red cent from either the PCA or the Counties in the administration of this program. Without proper resources how well do you think they manage the program. Just because
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Voting on Ideas

Currently, the DNR manages our lakes like a teenager babysitter with a cell phone. Unless they smell smoke they are doing something else.
What is needed is Lake Managers with specialties in lake types and local hydrology/geology and biology to manage each water body. There are lakes 50 miles from St. Paul with Phosphorus levels over 400 ppb. Does the DNR do anything? Do they have or use restoration plans? No.
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The idea is very simple and I touched on it before. The State must make a true and orchestrated effort to bring environmental data of the past to the 21st century. This would be like Wikipedia but with controls.

Herbicide applicators have a free pass to damage the waters of this state. When spraying they never turn off the spray when going over grass strips. Most if not all grass strips in this state are destroyed by senseless carelessness. There should be a $10,000 fine to any applicator destroying waterway grass strips.

Part of the problem in water quality is that open water ponds and small streams rarely get shore land status. This must change for most if not all of these waters are more sensitive than larger rivers due to the volume moved.
Then there is the shore land development setbacks which the DNR has completely screwed up. The densest populated shore land is the least regulated while the lowest density is the most protected
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Minnesota has the ridiculous idea that only the u of M can do research but when a MNSCU faculty or student develops a product or idea the state claims nearly all or all the profit. This stifles creativity tremendously and causes faculty to develop 99% of an idea and quit then completely the rest on their own and selling the IP. This is an intolerable situation when other states want only 12% to 14% over head costs and
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There needs to be a funding mechanism that is NOT DNR or BOSWR or DU. Thi funding mechanism would work best on a foundation basis with a sole purpose of restoring or creating and maintaining smaller wetlands and surrounding buffer lands for water fowl production. Regardless of what the DNR and PCA think, Wild Rice is not that hard to grow. To establish other wetland plants take minimal planning and acceptance that certain
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A team of top environmental professionals with or without degrees and for God's sake no engineers. That would be front line investigators of environmental problems. Also for this contract with local colleges and universities to have feet on the ground instantly until the Knights can arrive. The Knights would also be able to ticket and detain guilty parties until local authorities can arrive.

Cities (all cities including the MET Council) should be fined on a per gallon basis for the waters removed from an aquifer and not allowed to infiltrate back to those aquifers. These fines would go to a special fund with a sole purpose of replacing old WWTPs with ones that return the waters to their proper places. Starting with the poorest communities in the state and working up. Being for out state it would be nice
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Every county should have a biodigester that takes Septic Pumper fluids and yard waste to form methane for electric generation. The biogenerator waste can go 2 directions. The first is solids going to fields as fertilizers and can even be bagged and sold. The liquids can be refined and reused or can be sent into the add on Algae Farm to feed algae to create bio-diesel. The science works and works well but the initial
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The way to battle to combat invasive species in lakes and rivers are to restore limnological and riverine ecosystems to a balanced near pristine state. The only reason invasive species succeed is because there is an unfilled niche in the ecosystem. Fix the hole and there is no problem. For example, what is the real problem with Mille Lacs other than the DNR? Simple, the ecosystem is damaged in the microbial realm..
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The summit will focus public attention on the serious challenges facing Minnesota’s water supplies – in both rural and urban areas of the state – and continue statewide dialogue around steps that must be taken to address those challenges. It will bring together water quality experts, farmers, legislators, regulators, the business community, members of the public, local leaders, and a wide variety of other stakeholders.